ned in these letters
that he did not hear from home; not once had news reached him; had his
father and mother abandoned him?

The question brought forth a gush of tears from Mrs. Gum, and a sharp
abuse of the post-office. The clerk took the news philosophically,
remarking that the wonder would have been had Willy received the letters,
seeing that he seemed to move about incessantly from place to place.

Close upon this came another letter, written apparently in haste. Willy's
"fortune" had turned into reality at last; he was coming home with more
gold than he could count; had taken his berth in the good ship _Morning
Star_, and should come off at once to Calne, when the ship reached
Liverpool. There was a line written inside the envelope, as though he had
forgotten to include it in the letter: "I have had one from you at last;
the first you wrote, it seems. Thank dad for what he has done for me.
I'll make it all square with him when I get home."

This had reference to a fact which Calne did not know. In that unhappy
second visit of Clerk Gum's to London, he _did_ succeed in appeasing the
wrath of Goldsworthy and Co., and paid in every farthing of the money.
How far he might have accomplished this but for being backed by the
urgent influence of old Lord Hartledon, was a question. One thing was in
his favour: the firm had not taken any steps whatever in the matter, and
those handbills circulated at Calne were the result of a misapprehension
on the part of an officious local police-officer. Things had gone too far
for Goldsworthys graciously to condone the offence--and Clerk Gum paid in
his savings of years. This was the fact written by Mrs. Gum to her son,
which had called forth the line in the envelope.

Alas! those were the last tidings ever received from Willy Gum. Whilst
Mrs. Gum lived in a state of ecstacy, showing the letter to her
neighbours and making loving preparations for his reception, the time for
the arrival of the _Morning Star_ at Liverpool drew on, and passed, and
the ship did not arrive.

A time of anxious suspense to all who had relations on board--for it was
supposed she had foundered at sea--and tidings came to them. An awful
tale; a tale of mutiny and wrong and bloodshed. Some of the loose
characters on board the ship--and she was bringing home such--had risen
in disorder within a month of their sailing from Melbourne; had killed
the captain, the chief officer, and some of the passengers and crew